https://www.scmp.com/rss/322063/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com In a dark, tiered room resembling a cinema, with a large screen on which stars and planets are whizzing by, I am on a stationary bike – and I am flying. I’m not really flying, of course, but it’s easy to get that feeling with the universe whizzing by and purple pinpricks of light skipping across the floor. A young and enthusiastic instructor yells encouragement as he skips across the front of the room, clapping his hands above his head in time with the music. The music is loud and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2148775/china-fitness-club-making-workouts-exciting-concert-music?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2148775/china-fitness-club-making-workouts-exciting-concert-music?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Jun 2018 07:18:08 +0000 The city of Shanghai is home to an interwoven network of lanes, called lilongs, which are packed with low-rise residences, vegetable markets and noodle shops. But these neighborhoods that families have called home for generations are falling victim to the breakneck pace of modernization. So it is with the disappearing neighborhood of Laoximen. Literally translating to “old west gate,” Laoximen was the location of the western gate of Shanghai’s old walled city. Now, residents are leaving their... https://www.scmp.com/china/shanghais-laoximen-district-falls-wrecking-ball-heritage-preservation-becomes-issue/article/2144323?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/shanghais-laoximen-district-falls-wrecking-ball-heritage-preservation-becomes-issue/article/2144323?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 May 2018 09:23:44 +0000 China’s rising, 300 million-strong middle class have spurred a revolution in the fitness and wellness arena over the past two years, with entrepreneurs rushing in to meet the demand. Before Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2012, the luxury goods market took off as wealth in China grew and consumers latched on to logos as a way of denoting their status. Yearly sales of luxury goods in China accordingly tripled between 2007 and 2011. The Great Wall Antarctic Marathon: penguins, icebergs and the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2144183/chinas-fitness-revolution-young-women-getting-gym-body-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2144183/chinas-fitness-revolution-young-women-getting-gym-body-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 May 2018 12:15:15 +0000 Economic prosperity has always been followed by redevelopment of urban areas, and it’s no different in China today, where cities are building futuristic skylines of gleaming metal and glass towers at breakneck speed. The casualties, however, are the older neighbourhoods that families have called home for generations. In Shanghai it is the interwoven networks of lilongs, or lanes,  packed with low-rise residences, vegetable markets and noodle shops. Shanghai’s neighbourhoods offer fascinating... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2144013/development-destroys-old-shanghai-residents-win-payouts-lose-neighbourhood?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2144013/development-destroys-old-shanghai-residents-win-payouts-lose-neighbourhood?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 May 2018 05:45:30 +0000 A lot has changed in China since folk musician and author Liu Jian, 39, was a boy, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the music children listen to. Alongside breakneck economic growth, urbanisation and internationalisation, it came of something of a surprise to Liu and his American wife, writer Rebecca Kanthor, 38, that the Chinese music available for children has remained unchanged for generations. How can I get my children to listen to ‘cool’ music? When they were searching for music for... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/2126687/creators-chinas-first-touring-music-festival-children-want-better?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/families/article/2126687/creators-chinas-first-touring-music-festival-children-want-better?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Jan 2018 09:15:28 +0000 French artist Philippe Parreno has spent decades challenging the notion of artworks being shown in exhibitions as mere objects. For the 53-year-old master of multiple disciplines, a show should be an artwork in itself – a living, breathing, moving, changing work. The exhibition becomes, in essence, a dialogue with the space, putting some artistic meat on a gallery’s architectural bones. US art market overtakes China’s as contemporary art boom signals a ‘historic development in art... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2106423/philippe-parrenos-synchronicity-rethinks-art-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2106423/philippe-parrenos-synchronicity-rethinks-art-shanghai?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Aug 2017 05:15:45 +0000 More than three months after James Turrell’s solo exhibition opened at the Long Museum in Shanghai, hundreds of visitors are still coughing up 200 yuan (HK$226) to see it. “James Turrell: Immersive Light”, which runs until May 21, is billed as the Californian artist’s first comprehensive retrospective in mainland China and has divided the museum’s cavernous, industrial-inspired space up into 15 rooms, each housing an installation. For more than half a century, Turrell has been experimenting with... https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2090389/shanghai-still-thrills-james-turrells-light-fantastic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/arts-entertainment/article/2090389/shanghai-still-thrills-james-turrells-light-fantastic?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Apr 2017 05:00:00 +0000 If the polluted air doesn't get you, the poisoned food just might. With stories of tainted products breaking in the media with monotonous regularity, food-safety scandals are all too familiar to mainlanders. The list is long and terrifying: thousands of dead pigs found floating in Shanghai's Huangpu River; watermelons pumped full of growth hormones spontaneously combusting; the heavy metal cadmium in rice; toxic melamine in infant formula; arsenic in soy sauce; bleach in mushrooms; detergent in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/health-beauty/article/1903395/chinas-organic-food-boom-driven-personal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/health-beauty/article/1903395/chinas-organic-food-boom-driven-personal?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Jan 2016 11:30:15 +0000